A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Debit Card Delivery Fee…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
include more and more features which your existing consumers do not truly desire or require
add restrictions, charges or costs to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Debit Card Delivery Fee
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank instantly validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest alert by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to take place (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the additional action. But that does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make income from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Debit Card Delivery Fee